Aaron Eckhart looks for no-nonsense directors

A disgraced U.S. Secret Service agent is the only man who can save the President and the country when the White House is seized by terrorists. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, this action thriller stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Angela Bassett & Dylan McDermott.

'The Dark Knight' actor has teamed up with a host of top filmmakers including Christopher Nolan, Jason Reitman and Steven Soderbergh in the past, and says his main criteria for choosing new projects is being confident in the director's strong point of view.

Eckhart explained in a webchat hosted by Empire magazine: ''I look for directors who can beat me up, that don't take any of my c**p. A great example of that is Antoine Fuqua in 'Olympus Has Fallen'. I like strong directors who know how to tell a story.''

While the 45-year-old stud has taken on a myriad of different characters throughout his career, one thing he is adamant he would never do is to put on an English accent.

He joked: ''I don't think I would ever do an English accent; I don't think I'm very good at accents. Usually I'll prepare an accent and then at the start of the movie the director says, 'Why don't we just do it in your real voice?' ''

The 'Thank You For Smoking' star also revealed he would jump at the chance to appear in J.J. Abrams' upcoming sci-fi sequel, 'Star Wars: Episode VII'.

Eckart enthused: ''That would be a lot of fun! I remember seeing 'Star Wars' for the first time, and it was one of my favourite films. It would be hard to measure up to Harrison Ford.''